With the advent of new technologies such as portable radio selective call units and radio infrastructures for communicating messages thereto, individuals within domestic regions have been able to receive custom messages from other users at remote locations for sometime now. Typical forms of custom radio communications include, but are not limited to, electronic mail messages, paging messages and cellular telephony messages. Currently, most custom radio messaging systems are stationed on earth, and are limited geographically in their land coverage capacity.
Satellite communication systems, in contrast, have a substantial coverage capacity. It is for this reason that satellite communication systems have helped to revolutionize the dissemination of information worldwide. This is most apparent in the worldwide broadcasting of television signals. With potential for worldwide communication using satellite communication systems and with current advances in such systems, industry leaders have joined forces to develop worldwide satellite communication systems, which can provide cellular telephony services, paging services, and possibly much more.
An immediate problem faced by such consortiums is in the development of a satellite communication system which is cost effective to introduce, and cost effective to maintain. An additional challenge encountered by the communications industry is the development of satellite communication systems which support the use of selective call units that are compact and that have a battery life performance comparable to existing selective call units used domestically today. A key factor affecting cost, compactness, and battery efficiency of satellites and satellite-based selective call units is the type of communication protocol employed by a worldwide satellite communication system.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need for a communication protocol which provides a cost effective introduction and maintenance 5 of satellites and selective call units. Additionally, there is a need for a communication protocol which optimizes battery resources in the satellites and selective call units operating in a worldwide satellite communication system.